"Houston, we have a problem." - drywall texture

This week, the drywall team finished their work by texturing the walls.  Initially on our estimate from the drywall company, we had specified that we'd like a "light dash."

Wondering what the heck "light dash" wall texturing is?  Here's a picture...



If you're a huge nerd (ie: me), you can go to the Technical Services and Information Bureau to read all about wall texturing. 

While the "light dash" wall may look a bit like a Brillo Pad in the close up pic, we had light textured walls in our old house and loved the way that the paint sat on said walls.  One thing I'd strongly encourage you to remember is that a smooth wall will pick up stains, dings and holes.  A benefit of going with a textured wall is that it will show less wear and tear in the long run. 

Now that you've seen what a "light dash" should look like, here's what we ended up getting:

Can you see why I was freaking out?  Every single wall in our beautiful home was filled with these inconsistencies.

Drywall texture or snot?

Really, really bad.

Obviously whatever happened during the application of texture was water under the bridge at this point, because the texture had been applied and was completely dry.  I decided to go down to another home where the same drywall company was applying texture, and it looked nothing like our snotty mess.  I started to wonder if the mixture was off, or if perhaps the air compressor had malfunctioned during application...?

The long story short is this: the owner of the drywall company came out to verify that the texture that had been applied was not good.  He had his crew come out the following day, they re-sanded every single wall and reapplied the texture.  I have to give major kudos to the owner of the drywall company, because he said "As much as I would've liked to tell you that you were wrong about the texturing, you're absolutely right.  Something happened during the application and I will make sure that we fix it."  While this could've had disaster written all over it, I was so impressed with how the owner handled our botched walls and really thankful for his honesty and integrity.  As he humbly told us, he's done some of the homes for Seattle's Street of Dreams - and in the end, he wants his customers to be happy and love their home.

What I love more than our new, perfectly textured walls is a man who stands by his word.